1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the provision of a user policy to a terminal connected in a network. The invention particularly but not exclusively relates to the provision of a user policy to a terminal connected in a visited network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile communication systems are an example of a network arrangement where a terminal, such as a mobile terminal, may move between, and connect into, different networks. In a mobile communication system, a mobile terminal will typically be associated with a particular network, known as its home network, and may roam throughout the system and connect into other networks, termed visited networks.
In a mobile communication system, a terminal is typically provided with a user policy. The user policy is some policy associated with the terminal, and is applied to traffic transmitted to or from the terminal. The policy may be, for example, a quality of service policy or a security policy.
The quality of service (QoS) to be applied to particular traffic may depend upon multiple parameters. One parameter is the user subscription level. For example, a user may be associated with one of two subscription levels, being labelled silver and gold. All other things being equal, the gold subscription level should result in a higher or equal QoS than a silver subscription level. Another parameter is the type of traffic, for example real-time, interactive, background etc.
The operator policy determines the mapping from a multi-dimensional tuple, such as subscription level or type of traffic, to a single dimensional value, for example, 1, 2, 3 etc., which defines the QoS level. The QoS level defines how a packet is treated, and marked, for example for the QoS purpose.
When a user is roaming in a mobile communication system, and is connected to a visited network, the policy applied is the one of the visited operator. That policy may be different from the policy of the home operator. Thus, the same type of traffic may be mapped to a different QoS level in the visited network compared to the level it will be mapped to in the home network. For downlink traffic, the visited network may apply the local policy of the visited network to determine a QoS level, and treat the traffic according to that QoS level.
It is an aim of the invention to provide for an appropriate handling of uplink traffic in accordance with an appropriate user policy.